New Seattle superintendent wants flexibility for schools, just not too much

Seattle Public Schools superintendent Jose Banda has been on the job for one month.

Gabriel SpitzerKPLU

Seattle’s new superintendent of schools won’t be voting for the charter schools initiative on the November’s ballot. He doesn’t care much for “site-based management” that gives lots of autonomy to individual schools and he’s leery of letting schools more easily opt out of controversial curricula, such as “discovery math.”

And yet Jose Banda was chosen, at least in part, precisely because he is not thought to be authoritarian in his leadership style. He argues that schools need flexibility in organizing their instructional day, and has promised to work more collaboratively with the staff and school board than some of his predecessors did.

One month into his tenure, Jose Banda sat down with KPLU Youth and Education Reporter Gabriel Spitzer to talk about the balancing act between centralized leadership and independence in the classroom. Click the ”Listen” link above to hear the interview.